A variety of cleansing implements have been used to remove dirt and dead skin from the user's body during bathing or showering. Traditionally, hand held terry washcloths and natural and synthetic sponges have been used. Each of these has one or more significant deficiencies. For example, a sponge has pores which make it difficult to remove dirt from the implement once the dirt is removed from the body. A washcloth often impedes lathering even though lathering is a primary function of a cleansing implement. Some sponges absorb the cleansers that are intended to help remove dirt. Neither sponges nor washcloths can be dried quickly because they become water-logged. As a result they develop unpleasant odors and become a place for breeding bacteria, mold, etc. Also, such implements are typically not suitable for cleaning all body parts. Washcloths are too soft to stimulate and exfoliate skin, and sponges are too rough to cleanse sensitive skin areas.
Ball-like structures made of polymer netting have also been found in the prior art. An example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,744 to Campagnoli, issued Sep. 8, 1992. Ball-like structures are hand held and are made of diamond-mesh polyethylene. Diamond-mesh polyethylene is an extruded scrim material which is commonly found covering vegetables, meat, and poultry. Commercially available implements of this type are sold by The Body Shop of London, England; and by Bilange of New York, N.Y. Such constructions are very expensive because they have typically been made by hand.
One way to make such ball-like structures is to stretch multiple tubular pieces of diamond-mesh scrim transversely to their tubular axes. Each piece is then placed over separate support posts. The supported pieces, held in a stretched condition, are arranged either parallel to or at different angles to each other. By tying together the stretched pieces at their centers, and then releasing the resilient pieces from the support posts, each piece springs back toward the tied center to generate a ball-like shape.
Cinching the scrim at the centers of the pieces produces a hard dense core, which hinders rinsing and drying. While the surface of a ball-like structure may have high open area at tits surface, it is difficult to clean the center of the implement for reuse.
Knitted tubing made from plastic filaments is another material found in the scrubbing implement art. Knitted tubing is often avoided for such implements, however, because it is viewed as a more expensive material than an extruded scrim. While the material itself may be more expensive, implements made of knitted tubing may have a better "feel" to one's skin. Knitted filaments can be sized and shaped to feel softer than extruded scrim when a personal cleansing implement is rubbed against one's skin. The individual stitches are free to move and deform when touching the skin, whereas extruded scrim implements have apertures formed by strands which are fixed together at their crossing points. Such strands must move and deform as a group rather than individually, and therefore provide a stiffer structure for similar density and open area. Furthermore, knitted filaments are interlocked in a way that provides a structure having a natural loft, whereas scrim is typically flat and requires heat setting pleats to create a lofted structure.
Although knitted scrubbing implements are known in the art, they are generally knitted of metal or rough fibers for the purpose of being abrasive for removing soil from hard surfaces. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,017,949 to Botvin discloses a scouring pad and method of making it. A knit polypropylene filament tubular envelope surrounds a stuffer material. In a later Botvin patent the stuffer material is the same as the knit envelope. The method turns the envelope "inside out", or inverts it. The flattened tubing is heat sealed across the open ends. Filaments are either ribbon-like or are elliptical filaments having a cross-section with major axis of 0.030 inches and minor axis of 0.009 inches. The advantage of ribbon and other slit films for abrasive scrubbing is that they fibrilate, creating a rough surface. Implements made of such materials are not sufficiently gentle when rubbed against human skin to be considered "soft", and therefore are not acceptable personal cleansing implements.